


The Right Opportunity

by whatlighttasteslike (waitingforeleven)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguments, F/M, Fanfiction Friday, For Science!, Friendship, Misunderstandings, Science, drones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 11:58:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11312922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waitingforeleven/pseuds/whatlighttasteslike
Summary: When one of the Dwarfs malfunctions during Fitz's presentation at the Academy, Jemma wants to determine the cause of the incident. But Fitz wants to let the matter rest in order to conceal a secret.Written for the TFSN's Fanfiction Friday Challenge - For Science!





	The Right Opportunity

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: _"How could this happen?"_

Jemma’s brow furrowed as she pulled off the back panel of Bashful in her attempt to identify the cause of the day’s unfortunate incident. Fitz usually handled the dwarfs by himself with Jemma hovering a few inches away to make any adjustments along the way. But today, Fitz stood back with his arms crossed as he watched his partner warily. He knew she wouldn’t find anything out of order, but he didn’t want her to figure that out too quickly, hoping he could continue with his charade until she grew tired and let it go.

Calling the incident unfortunate was a bit of an understatement, considering the entire faculty of the Science and Technology division was in attendance for the apprenticeship presentations. Once the students were told about the chance to work under the likes of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, Jemma focused much of her time discussing Fitz’s application and the project he would present to the judging panel, saying he wouldn’t want to miss out on an opportunity like this.

At this point in their studies, the dwarfs were pure prototypes, but with Jemma’s constant encouragement and countless late night brainstorming sessions, they were able to get them to a working condition suitable for an impressive demonstration. Jemma radiated confidence, believing the judges would be overly impressed by Fitz’s creation. But Fitz didn’t share these feelings. He knew his invention and overall intelligence were above average compared to others at the Academy, but he didn’t know exactly what the judges were looking for, and more importantly, he didn’t know how he would get on in a high tech lab all by himself without his best friend by his side.

On the day of his demonstration, Fitz walked to the stage and shakily introduced himself before quickly jumping into his presentation. All was well at first – the dwarfs demonstrated their ability to scan the vicinity for textures, matter density, and radiation, the footage projected on a large screen behind him. That was until Bashful decided to go about its own course and flew into the auditorium, nearly missing the judging table by a few inches before crashing to the ground many rows up. 

The silence that filled the space was deafening as Fitz hurried to retrieve the malfunctioning drone, muttering frantic apologies to the observers in the room. Fitz knew Jemma was somewhere in the dark auditorium quietly cheering him on – well, until his presentation came to a shocking halt – but he didn’t seek her out until they were free from onlookers, knowing she would likely be upset.

When he entered the freshmen lab with his equipment, Jemma following urgently behind him, she rushed forward and pulled him into a tight embrace. He shushed her words of apology, saying it was his own fault and that he wanted to drop the matter entirely. But Jemma didn’t let him get away with it that fast, much to his dismay. Once he set the dwarfs down at his lab station, she got to work trying to decipher the culprit behind the malfunction.

“How could this happen?” she muttered as she examined Bashful closely. “It was like it was acting on its own free will.”

“I don’t know,” Fitz replied through a shrug. “Maybe I messed up the wiring – my nerves and all that.”

“But we triple checked everything this morning! I was confident it would perform just as we practiced.” She turned her eyes to her tablet as it scanned the device for any faults.

“Simmons, I can’t explain it,” he said after letting out a huff.

“Well, I’m sure we can get to the bottom of it.”

After watching her silently work for a few more moments, he couldn’t take it anymore and stepped forward to take the dwarf out of her hands. “Here, stop worrying about it. It’s done.”

Jemma narrowed her eyes and reached out for the drone, but Fitz turned on his heel to return it to its protective casing. He sensed her following closely behind him and wasn’t surprised when he felt her rest her hand on his shoulder.

“We shouldn’t just let the idea go,” she pleaded. Pulling on his shoulder, she urged him away from the case to face her. “We need to figure out the cause of this and perfect the models. What if one of the judges decides to have another look? _And_ this obviously isn’t the only apprenticeship opportunity out there, so we should be prepared to show them off in all their glory,” she said, ending with a smile.

Through her beaming, Fitz groaned. “I told you it’s _fine_. Let’s just give it a rest for the day.” He closed his eyes and pulled his hand up to his forehead through his frustration. Unfortunately, this gave Jemma the perfect opportunity to reach her hand past him to take Bashful back out of its case.

“Hey!” he shouted, trying desperately to grab the device out of her hands, but she was too quick, already pulling her tablet out of her back pocket and starting up the drone. Within seconds, the dwarf propelled into the air without difficulty, just as it had done so the day before when they were practicing for his demonstration. Fitz tried to remember to breathe as he watched Jemma purse her lips. Clearly, she was figuring out what was going on. 

“Well, it seems to be working fine now,” he muttered under his breath.

“Yep,” she replied, her voice surprisingly low. Her eyes grew much darker, and Fitz braced himself for what was bound to come.

“Simmons…” he said hesitantly.

Without taking her eyes off him, Jemma slid her finger across the tablet to shut down the dwarf, the device gracefully lowering itself into its protective casing, and then placed the tablet back on the lab station. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” she asked slowly.

“Excuse me?”

Suddenly, she was inches from his face, her eyes wild. “You programmed or manipulated or _whatever_ you did, you made it where Bashful would malfunction that way they wouldn’t pick you!”

“Okay, that’s ridiculous!” he shouted. “Why would I purposely disrupt my presentation in front of the entire faculty? It was bloody embarrassing.” It wasn’t a lie. He didn’t enjoy going through with his plan or seeing the look on the judges’ faces as the drone nearly crashed into their judging table. Not only that, he didn’t like to make mistakes in front of Jemma, even if he brought it on himself.  

Shaking her head, Jemma scoffed. “No, it’s true! I know it is! I just don’t understand why.”

At that, Fitz couldn’t form a response, so he turned away from her and began to pace the lab floor. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid – making a mess of their relationship, and now he was doing just that. He couldn’t remember the last time Jemma had raised her voice this much, and to think it was all his doing made him feel sick to his stomach.

“Did you not want the apprenticeship in the first place?” she asked. “I mean, if you didn’t want it, maybe I should have applied for it instead. But it was engineering focused, so it probably still would have gone to—”

“It was only for one person!”

Jemma froze mid-sentence and stared at him wide-eyed.

Fitz pulled in his lips as he stared back, his mind in a frenzy. “The apprenticeship – they only picked one person. And I…ah…” He circled his hand around in the air in an attempt to find the right words. Jemma continued to stand in silence, but her expression was no longer one of disbelief. Instead, her eyes were now filled with concern.

Fitz let out a breath and raised his shoulders. “No matter how extravagant that new lab would have been, it wouldn’t have been the same without you.” He surprised himself when his voice suddenly wavered, so he took in a few deep breaths to collect himself.

“Oh,” she whispered.

He was planning to tell her eventually, of course. Maybe during a late night study session after a few beers, he would bring up his comical attempt to impress the judges with the dwarfs and how it was a bloody disaster. Maybe she would laugh along with him even though she didn’t find the incident funny in the slightest. Then, he would finally tell her he did it on purpose, saying he just couldn’t break up their friendship, and that would be that. But now, that couldn’t happen. Instead, he was forced to explain himself through feelings he didn’t fully understand.

Fitz leaned against his lab station and crossed his arms as Jemma continued to watch him closely. “It was stupid, I know,” he said. “We worked so hard on the modifications. And everyone knows we worked on the dwarfs together, so this is probably just as humiliating for you as it is for me.”

“Hey, no. Don’t worry about that.” She rushed forward to grip his forearm, but Fitz hung his head, embarrassment washing over him. Pulling on his arm, she managed to pry it from his chest to allow her to find his hand, squeezing it gently. “Fitz, if you didn’t want to apply for the apprenticeship, you should have just told me. I would have understood.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s too late for that now.”  

She smiled sweetly before pulling his hand to her chest. “You can talk to me. You know that right?”

When he looked up at her, her eyes were brighter than he’d ever seen them. He didn’t understand how she managed this – how she could go from being her vibrant and clever self to the most gentle and caring person in the world in the matter of seconds. It sent a chill through his bones at how lucky he was to be able to witness it. 

“The two of us? We’re a team,” she said insistently. “I just wish you had come to me first instead of going through all this trouble.”

“Yeah, now no one will want to recruit me.”

“That’s not true. So the dwarfs didn’t work today – that doesn’t mean we can’t show them off in the future. Who knows? Maybe there are people out there who need two young brilliant scientists for secret missions around the world. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Whatever happens, I’m sure the right opportunity will come along.” She suddenly tilted her head to the side, as if a new thought entered her brain. “Is that all this is about?”

Fitz didn’t really know what to say. In his head, he was certain the only reason for his actions was because he didn’t want to ruin their working relationship. They clearly worked well together in the lab, and after only about a year at the Academy, their friendship was stronger than ever. But there was something in the back of his mind that kept nagging at him. He couldn’t decipher what it was yet, but certain feelings always flooded his brain whenever she pulled her hair back a certain way, or whenever she brushed past him in the lab. Or moments like this. God, he savored moments like this.

But she didn’t need to know about these jumbled thoughts that often clouded his mind, so he nodded his head to satisfy her. “Yeah, that’s all.”

“Well, then. When the next opportunity comes along, there will simply need to be _two_ spots available instead of one. I think we can make that happen.”

“Yeah, me too,” he agreed as he squeezed her hand back. 

He didn’t let go of her hand for quite some time. He concluded he would simply learn to manage these confusing thoughts, but as she wasn’t making any movements to let go either, it was going to be a lot harder than he thought. 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr at [whatlighttasteslike](http://whatlighttasteslike.tumblr.com)!


End file.
